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The Who talk 2011 tour, album possibilities

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Pete Townsend’s hearing problems have caused a lot of speculation about The Who’s touring future. Well, that future may be less bleak than many (Pete included) predicted. In a fan interview on the Who’s website, Roger Daltrey talked about next year’s plans. Mostly it sounds like him thinking aloud, but if even 10% of what he described comes to pass, 2011 promises a good year for Who fans.

The full interview audio is on the band’s website, but we’ve posted some choice quotes below. Daltrey discusses a new album, the challenges of growing older, and why a greatest hits tour would “bore [him] shitless.” Big thanks to Hennemusic for transcribing the audio.

On where things stand right now: We’re in the planning stages for next year…we are planning on doing something. I can’t really talk about specifics yet, but it will be based around a past work.

On a new album: Pete is writing…you never know when that might turn up. So, between now and then, there might be a new album, plus Quadrophenia, and Tommy, and those things we haven’t visited for a while. That will be fun.

On a “greatest hits” tour: We have thought about that. But what is a greatest hits show? All the hits and nothing else, and none of the obscure? That would bore me shitless…If we did a greatest hits tour, everybody would say, ‘We’re bored with that, give us something else.’ We can never please everybody.

On mixing things up: I would like to be on the road playing as many different kind of shows as we could: maybe doing Quadrophenia one night, do greatest hits the next night…this is what I would like to do. And Tommy…if I could still sing Tommy. That, to me, would be really good fun. And don’t keep going out with the same show every night – the audience would have to take a chance on what show they actually got.

On twenty-first century challenges: The whole music business has been through a seismic shift, so we’re looking at new ways of doing it. At the age we are now, you can’t do the number of shows per week that we used to, and you need to do so many to maintain the kind of budget that will allow you to do it in the first place. So it’s kind of a catch-22 situation we’re in.